Idle musings by a once again bookseller, always bibliophile, current copyeditor, proofreader, and former cabin housekeeper/maintenance guy. Complete with ramblings about biblical studies, the ancient Near East, bicycling, gardening, or anything else I am reading (or experiencing). All live from the North Shore of Lake Superior

Thursday, April 02, 2015

Prevenient grace endorsed

In fact, Arminian theology can find consensus with [the Synod of] Orange [529 AD] as its decisions affirmed both human inability and divine enabling. Moreover, Orange rejected a strict Augustinian interpretation that simply affirms prevenient grace: “The sin of the first man has so impaired and weakened free will that no one thereafter can either love God as he ought or believe in God or do good for God’s sake, unless the grace of divine mercy has preceded him.” [Conclusion of The Canons of the Synod of Orange (529 AD)] The council did not insist on divine predestination as the solution to human inability; instead it endorsed a Semi-Augustinian version of grace that can be understood as a doctrine of prevenient grace, in which the Spirit initiates an individual’s faith potential, and that person must then seek out God, who prompted the process of salvation.mdash; Prevenient Grace: God’s Provision for Fallen Humanity, pages 73–74

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Truth be known, strict Augustinianism was actually named anathema at one of these synods—Take that Synod of Dort!
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